Bio, Artist Statement, Chronology, Honorary Doctorates and Awards

Biography

Faith Ringgold, painter, writer, speaker, mixed media sculptor and performance artist lives and works in Englewood, New Jersey. Ms Ringgoldis professor emeritus at the University of California, San Diego where she taught art from 1984 until 2002.

Professor Ringgold is the recipient of more than 75 awards including 23 Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degrees. She has received fellowships and grants that include the National Endowment For the Arts Award for sculpture (1978) and for painting(1989); The La Napoule Foundation Award for painting in France (1990); The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship for painting (1987); The New York Foundation For the Arts Award for painting (1988); The American Association of University Women for travel to Africa (1976); The Creative Artists Public Service Award for painting (1971).

Ringgold’s art has been exhibited in museums and galleries in the USA, Europe, Asia, South America, the Middle East, and Africa. Her art is included in many private and public art collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Boston Museum of Fine Art, The Chase Manhattan Bank Collection, The Baltimore Museum, Williams College Museum of Art, The High Museum of Fine Art, The Newark Museum, The Phillip Morris Collection, The St. Louis Art Museum and The Spencer Museum. Ms. Ringgold is represented by ACA Gallery in New York City.

Ringgold's recent painting series includes; The American Collection (1997); a series of painted story quilts in which Ringgold undertakes to rewrite African American art history. This series is an extension of Ringgold's French Collection which she began in Paris and the South of France in 1990. Many of these works were included in a traveling exhibition curated by The New Museum of Contemporary Art titled, Faith Ringgold: Dancing at the Louvre and Other Story Quilts (catalog). The theme of freedom and resilience are the common thread that runs through the Coming to Jones Road Series part 1(1999-2000). In this series images of escaped slaves are moving through distant and colorful landscapes to a new found freedom and home.

Ringgold’s public commissions include Flying Home: Harlem Heroes and Heroines, two 25 foot mosaic murals installed on the uptown and downtown platforms of the 125th street Independent Rapid Transit (7th Avenue IRT) Subway station in New York City in 1996; The Crown Heights Children's Story Quilt featuring folklore from the 12 major cultures that settled Crown Heights is installed in the library at PS 90 in Crown Heights, Brooklyn; Eugenio Maria deHostos: A Man and His Dream, (1994) A mural celebrating the life of Eugenio Maria deHostos for De Hostos Community College in the Bronx is installed in the atrium of the college.

Ringgold's first published book, the award winning, Tar Beach, "a book for children of all ages", was published by Random House in 1991 and has won more than 30 awards including, a Caldecott Honor and the Coretta Scott King award for the best illustrated children's book of 1991. The book, Tar Beach, is based on the story quilt Tar Beach, from Ringgold's The Woman On A Bridge Series of 1988 and is in the permanent collection of the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. HBO included an animated version of Tar Beach in "Good Night Moon and Other Sleepy Time Lullabies." This program runs periodically on HBO and has been released as a DVD.

Ringgold has written and illustrated a total of 17children's books including the above mentioned Tar Beach , Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad In The Sky, My Dream of Martin Luther King and Talking to Faith Ringgold, (an autobiographical interactive art book for children of all ages), The Invisible Princess, an original African American Fairy Tale based on the quilt Born in a Cotton Field,1997 all published by Random House. Random house also released three books for pre-school age children: Counting to Tar Beach and Cassie's Colorful Day with Daddy and Cassie’s Word Quilt. Hyperion Books, a Walt Disney publisher has published Dinner at Aunt Connie's House (based on The Dinner Quilt, a painted story quilt Ringgold created in 1986 and Bonjour Lonnie. If a Bus Could Talk; The Story of Ms. Rosa Parks won the NAACP's Image Award 2000 and is available from Simon and Schuster. O Holy Night and The Three Witches and Harlem Renaissance Party are the newest books from Harper Collins. Knopf will release, We Came to America in 2016. We Flew Over the Bridge: The Memoirs of Faith Ringgold, Ringgold's first adult book was published by Little, Brown in 1995 and has been re-released by Duke University Press.

Ms Ringgold has a history of juring and curating exhibitions. Ms. Ringgoldjuried the the Mid Atlantic: Annual Juried Art Show for the Hoyt Institute of Fine Arts, PA (2006), the Appalacian Corridor Exhibition for the Avampato Discovery Museum in WV (2005), the 10th Annual National Art Competition at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri (1998) $1,500 in prizes were awarded, the Texas National Exhibition titled Art for the Year 2000 at Stephen Austin College in Nagodocies (1996) where three thousand entries were submitted and $4,500.00 in prizes were awarded. Ringgold curated the 25th anniversary exhibition of the Women’s Caucus for Art International Exhibition held in Chicago, February 1997. Ms. Ringgold supports the talent, effort, dedication and creativity of emerging artists.

I became an artist in the tumultuous 1960s. However love with being an artist. By the early 1970s I had developed both vision and voice as a black woman artist in America.

I went to West Africa in the 1970s and returned home inspired to write my memoir. We Flew Over the Bridge: The Memoirs of Faith Ringgold was published in 1995 it took me fifteen years to get it published. During that time I wrote and painted story quilts and began to create masked performances to tell my story. I had been working in collaboration with my mother, Mme Willi Posey a dressmaker and fashion designer. We made our first quilt in 1980.

News of the great jazz saxophonist, Sonny Rollins, a childhood friend, blowing his horn on the Manhattan bridge so that he would not disturb his neighbors, inspired the painted story quilt, Tar Beach. That story of Cassie Louise Lightfoot flying over the George Washington Bridge became my first children’s book. I have published 14 children’s books to date. 1990 found me in France painting the French Collection and writing the story of Willia Marie Simone, a self styled African American woman artist who went to Paris to be an artist in 1920 during the Harlem Renaissance. The American Collection came next and the story quilts and children’s books continued to document my artistic production.

In 1992 my husband, Birdie, and I moved from Harlem to Jones Road in Englewood, New Jersey to build a studio. However, our white neighbors (unsuccessfully) sought to deny us the freedom to live there. Freedom, you know, is not free--It took me six years to realize my dream of a beautiful studio surrounded by a beautiful garden. Inspiring images of my ancestors on the Underground Railroad now appeared in my new landscape paintings of Coming to Jones Road Under a Blood Red Sky. Icons of black men and women making the music the whole world loves, the music we brought to America along with the pain of slavery was now a new inspiration. “Mama Can Sing” and “Papa Can Blow” are the ever reassuring realities of black life I depend on during difficult times.

Recent work includes Our Ancestors: stories about the worlds children who faced with life in a world at war have forgotten how to play. We call upon our ancestors who would surely bring love and happiness into their lives? Where would we have been without them?

It is 2007 and I have just completed a series of 8 serigraphs for publication of Martin Luther King’s Letter From Birmingham City Jail, in which he masterfully details our struggle for freedom for which he paid with his life. The 1960s, the majestic words of freedom and peaceful solutions to The Struggle in America are all quite unimaginable without the presence of Martin Luther King Jr. A tribute I feel honored to create.

Faith Ringgold

9/21/07

Chronology

1930 Born October 8th at Harlem Hospital in New York City to Andrew Louis Jones, Sr. and Willi Posey Jones. She has two older siblings, An-drew and Barbara. Frequently sick with asthma as a small child; art becomes a major pastime.

1942 Her family moves from the “Valley” to Sugar Hill in Harlem.

1950 Marries Robert Earl Wallace, a classical and jazz pianist while majoring in art at the City College of New York. Obtains first studio space for independent oil painting projects in their apartment at 365 Edgecombe Avenue.

1955 Graduates from the City College of New York with B.S. in Fine Art and Education. Begins teaching art in the New York City public schools (1955-1973). It is now that Faith first heard of James Baldwin through his baby sister, Paula, who was a student of Faith’s.

1961 First trip to Europe (with mother and daughters) aboard the S.S. Liberte. Tours the muse-ums of Paris, Nice, Florence and Rome. Brother dies while they are in Rome, causing them to return to the U.S. abruptly. Faith’s dining area in her home becomes studio space.

1962 Marries BurdetteRinggold, May 19th.

1963 Does first political paintings. During a sum-mer at Oaks Bluff on Martha’s Vineyard, de-velops first mature painting style, content in-fluenced by writings of James Baldwin and AmiriBaraka (then Leroi Jones), which she calls “super realism.” Paints The American People series of oil paintings (1963-1967).

1964 Begins search for a New York Gallery. Writes letters to RomareBearden and Hale Woodruff in an attempt to join Spiral, the black artists group, and to exhibit in the first Black Arts Festival in Senegal. Unsuccessful on both counts.

1965 Meets Leroi Jones at his Black Arts Repertory Theatre and School in Harlem.

1967 Paints first murals: The Flag is Bleeding, U.S. Postage Stamp Commemorating the Advent of Black Power, Die, while daughters are in Europe for the summer. First one-person show at Spectrum Gallery. Meets James Porter of Howard University who buys painting from American People series. Begins development of “Black Light” using palette of darkened colors, in pursuit of a more affirmative black aesthetic.

1968 Participates in benefit exhibition for Martin Luther King, Jr. at The Museum of Modern Art. Meets Jacob Lawrence, Henri Ghent and Ed Taylor. Initiates first demonstration of black artists at the Whitney Museum. Joins Art Workers Coalition. Meets Lucy Lippard, Carl Andre and Lil Picard. Demonstrates with Tom Lloyd, light sculptor, against MOMA to achieve a black artist wing for Martin Luther King, Jr. Instead, their efforts result in two blacks for the Board of Trustees of the museum and major exhibitions there for two artists in 1971.

1969 Paints Flag for the Moon Die Nigger as a response to first U.S. moon shot. Begins series of political posters. Daughters in Mexico for the summer. Father dies.

1970 Has second one person show: America Black, featuring “Black Light” paintings, at Spec-trum Gallery. Begins teaching at Bank Street, Pratt Institute and Wagner College. Meets Robert Morris and Poppy Johnson, through Art Strike. Participates in demonstrations of Ad Hoc Women’s Art Group against the Whitney Museum. Her particular contribu-tions results in the inclusion of Betye Saar and Barbara Chase-Riboud in the Whitney Sculp-ture Biennial, making them the first black women ever to exhibit at the Whitney. Does first dolls, Family of Woman Masks, and Slave Rape Series of paintings. Collaborates with Willi Posey (her mother, who was a fashion designer) on costumes for masks and tankas for paintings.

1971 Co-founds Where We At, black artists group. Guest curator of Where We At show at Acts of Art Gallery. Meets Kay Brown and DingaMc-Cannon. Does United States of Attica poster. Wins CAPS Grant to do mural for The Women’s House of Detention. As a result of doing a television show called On Free Time (PBS), hosted by Julius Lester, meets Louise Nevelson, Alice Neel and Pat Mainardi.

1972 Permanent installation at the Women’s House of Detention on Riker’s Island of For the Women’s House, which uses all-female im-agery for the first time. As a result of this Art without Walls (an artists’ group to bring art to prison inmates) is formed. Develops tankas (soft cloth frames) after seeing an exhibition of Tibetan art at the Rijk Museum in Amsterdam.Puts political posters and feminist papers in Documenta in Kassel, Germany. Participates in First American Women Artists Show in Hamburg. Begins lecture tours and traveling exhibitions to colleges and universities around the country.

1973 Ten-year retrospective at Voorhees Gallery at Rutgers University. Resigns from teaching position in New York City Public Schools to continue touring and to make art full time. Does first dolls, Family of Woman series.

1974 Develops hanging soft sculptures: Wilt and Couple series, both series feature painted coco-nut heads. Does Windows of the Wedding series, abstract paintings based on African Kubade-sign, and uses them as environment for soft sculptures. Michele graduates from City Col-lege and Barbara completes her senior year of college at the University of London.

1975 Curates 11 in New York, black women’s show at Women’s Interarts Center. Begins to do art performances with masks and costumes. Does first stuffed figures Zora & Fish (bag man and woman), first portrait masks of Harlem Series, which includes Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and Martin Luther King, Jr. Develops applique’ soft masks for workshop at Univer-sity of Wisconsin. Barbara graduates with a B.A.in Linguistics at the University of London, stays on to do graduate work.

1976 Artist-in-Residence at Wilson College, where she develops The Wake and Resurrection of the Bicentennial Negro, an environmental performance piece. Co-director with Monica Freeman, Margo Jefferson, Pat Jones and Michele Wallace of The Sojourner Truth Festival of the Arts, which is held at The Women’s Interarts Center and includes exhibition of Dear Joanna letters, a documentation piece. Goes to Africa for the first time. Tours Ghana and Nigeria to see art and people.

1977 Participates in Festac 77 in Lagos, Nigeria. Does first free standing soft sculptures, Women on a Pedestal series. Begins writing autobiography Being My Own Woman.Daughter Barbara receives graduate diploma from the University of London, returns to U.S. to do Ph.D. in African Linguistics at City University Graduate Center. Mother remarries. Meets Moira Roth.

1978 Receives National Endowment for the Arts Award for sculpture. Develops Ringgold Doll and Harlem ‘78, a series of soft sculptures and public participation graffiti mural.

1979 Develops International Dolls Collection and Ringgold Doll Kits (Sew Real). Michele publishes first book, Black Macho and the Myth of the Superwoman, appears on the cover of Ms. Magazine with picture of family inside.

1980 Faith and her mother begin work on final collaborative project, Echoes of Harlem, a quilt for Artist & Quilt show. Completes first draft of autobiography. Michele begins Ph.D. in American Studies at Yale University. Barbara marries and receives Masters of Philosophy at City University of New York (CUNY).

1981 Faith and her mother work on packaging of Ringgold Doll Kits. Does Atlanta series in memory of the children killed in Atlanta. Mother dies. Barbara divorces. Michele leaves Yale and returns home.

1982 Curates the Wild Art Show at P.S. 1 for the Women’s Caucus for Art. First grandchild, Baby Faith, born. Begins painting again at MacDowell Colony: Emanon series and Baby Faith and Willi series. Michele and she perform No Name Performance #1 at Kenkelaba House. Does painted dolls. Sister dies.

1983 Begins Dah series of paintings. Initiates Upstream Women series of workshops and panels. First excerpt from autobiography published in Confirmation: An Anthology of African American Women, edited by AmiriBaraka and AminaBaraka. Does Mother’s Quilt and first Story Quilt, Who’s Afraid of Aunt Jemima? quilt and text. Wins Wonder Woman Award from Warner Communications. Performs No Name Performance #2 in which audience dances, speaks out and, in finale, takes over the stage.

1984 Has 20 year Retrospective at Studio Museum in Harlem. Michele Wallace edits the accompanying catalogue. Is a visiting Associate Professor at University of California in San Diego. Continues painting Dah series (California Dah) to be used as a backdrop for No Name #2. Does series of aquatints called The Death of Apartheid and participates in exhibitions organized by Artists Against Apartheid. Begins printmaking as Visiting Artist at Printmaking workshop. Does etching on canvas to be used to make Story Quilts. Michele begins teaching at University of Oklahoma in Norman.

1985 Continues Story Quilts, and develops a new story-telling performance: The Bitter Nest. Appointed to a tenured position in the Visual Art Department as full professor at the University of California in San Diego, and is now bi-coastal. Sets up bicoastal living pattern of half the year in San Diego and the other half in New York. Exhibits Flag series of paintings from ‘60’s in group exhibition; Tradition & Conflict: Images of a Turbulent Decade l963-1973. Barbara marries and has second baby girl, Theodora-Michele.

1986 Receives first Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from Moore College of Art. Joins the Bernice Steinbaum Gallery and prepares for solo show of Story Quilts in January of 1987. Loses weight (over 100 pounds) documenting this in a videotape, quilt and performance entitled Change. Faith Ringgold’s Over 100 Pounds Weight Loss Performance Story Quilt Receives Candace Award from One Hundred Black Women.

1987 Has solo show in Bernice Steinbaum Gallery with Change: Over 100 Pounds Weight Loss Performance and catalogue, followed by major articles in Arts, Art in America and other periodicals. Meets Eleanor Flomenhaft. Receives Fellowship from John Solomon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, also Public Art Fund Award from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Awarded honorary doctorate at College of Wooster, Wooster, OH. Has three one-person shows including one at The Baltimore Museum and 21 group shows, curates Home Show at Goddard Riverside Community Center. Travels to Japan for exhibit.

1988 Has solo exhibition at Bernice Steinbaum Gallery. Exhibits Tar Beach as part of the Woman on A Bridge Series. Performs Change 2: Faith Ringgold’s Over 100 Pounds Weight Loss Performance Story Quilt. Receives New York Foundation for the Arts Award (for painting); is included in Leslie Sills, “Inspirations: Stories of Women Artists for Children”

1989 Receives important honors: National Endowment For the Arts Award for painting; the La Napoule Award, to spend four months in France; the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation Award; Is commissioned to create a story quilt to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the first black graduate, GaiusBolin, of Williams College. And is included in “Stitched Memories: African American Story Quilts” exhibition at the Williams College Museum in Williamstown, Mass. Is included in a major survey traveling exhibition of women’s art, “Making Their Mark: Women Artists Moving Into the Mainstream” Receives honorary doctorate from alma mater, The City College Of New York. Oprah Winfrey commissions, "Maya's Quilt" for Maya Angelou's birthday.

1990 Opens a major retrospective traveling exhibition, “Faith Ringgold: A Twenty-Five Year Survey” starts a thirteen -museum tour at the Fine Arts Museum of Long Island (FAMLI) curated by Eleanor Flomenhaft. followed by openings at The High Museum of Art at Georgia Pacific and The Arizona State Art Museum at Tempe, Arizona. Forthcoming book Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold is completed and is to be published by Crown Publishers, New York, and a silk screen edition of twenty four quilts titled Tar Beach 2 printed at the Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia. Creates the French Collection Series while painting in studios in Paris and at the La Napoule Chateau in the South of France. Meets Linda Freeman in La Napoule where she came to video Faith in the The Last Story Quilt.

1991 Returned to Paris and took an apartment at the Hotel Ferrandi on rue de Cher Che Midi while making sketches for part 2 (pertaining to Gertrude Stein and Josephine Baker) in the French Collection Series. Completed nine of the series and Change 3, a nude appraisal of forty years of weight loss and gain. Moved to a studio in the garment district in New York to work on a large scale mural, A Percent For Art Commission for Public School P.S. 22 in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Tar Beach her first children’s book was published by Crown Publishers in January of 1991. Continued tour of “Faith Ringgold: A Twenty-Five Year Survey” at Miami University Art Museum, Oxford, OH; Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, N.Y.; Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola, Florida; African American Museum of Fine Arts, Los Angeles, California.Receives an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Art from her Alma Mater, The City College of New York and another Honorary Doctorate from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston.

1992 Received The New York Times Best Children’s Book Award, a Caldecott Honor for the best illustrated children’s book of 1991 and The Coretta Scott King Award for the best illustrated book by an African American. Her second children’s book, Aunt Harriet’s Underground Railroad in the Sky, was published by Crown publishers. French Collection exhibition opened at the Bernice Steinbaum Gallery in New York City. Severed relations with the Bernice Steinbaum Gallery and resumed self-representation in a new studio on West 38th Street in New York. Bought a ranch house in Englewood, New Jersey with plans to build a studio in the country. Recieved a commission from the Metropolitan Transit Authority to create two thirty foot mosaic murals in the 125th street IRT subway station platform. Continued tour of twenty-five year survey: Museum of Art Davenport, Iowa; University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Mich.; Women’s Center Gallery, University of California, Santa Barbara, Ca., Mills College Art Gallery, Oakland, Ca.; Tacoma Museum, Tacoma, Washington through the end of February 1993. Receives Honorary Doctorate in Fine Art from Brockport State University in Brockport, New York and another Honorary Doctorate of Fine Art from the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California.

1993 Received a National Endowment for the Arts travel award to collaborate with Moira Roth on the Moroccan Holiday the last of the French Collection. Travels to Tangier, Morocco to prepare texts and drawings for the quilt. Returns to apartment at the Hotel Ferrandi on rue de Cher Che Midi in Paris. Met Michel Fabre at the Sorbonne and talked about the African American in Paris. Published Dinner at Aunt Connie’s House at Hyperion Books. This book is based on the story quilt, The Dinner Quilt, created in 1988. She recieves an Honorary Doctorate at the California College of Arts and Crafts, meets Marlon Riggs, the celebrated filmmaker. Creates The Black Family Dinner Quilt, in tribute to Mary McLeod Bethune and Dr. Dorothy Height, and donates it to the museum of the National Association of Negro Women. The Children’s Museum of Manhattan mounts an exhibition of Tar Beach. Receives commission to create a nine by seventeen foot painted mural based on the life of Eugenio Maria de Hostos, the Man and His Dream for de Hostos Community College.

1994 Begins rewriting autobiography We Flew Over The Bridge with Moira Roth as editor. The first editing session begins in Paris in January during the African American in Paris Conference at the Luxembourg Gardens. Howardina Pindell, Lorna Simpson, Bette Saar, Sam Gilliam attend the conference which is organized by Raymond Saunders and Maica Sancone. Moved back to Harlem studio in preparation for building a new studio in Englewood, New Jersey. Participates in two major exhibitions abroad, Cocido Y Crudo, curated by Dan Cameron, in Madrid, Spain at the Museo National Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, and the Cairo Biennial, in Cairo, Egypt. Joined Bob Blackburn, Mel Edwards, Kay Walkingstick, Juan Sanchez and Michael Kelly Williams in Egypt for the opening. The exhibition slated to travel throughout East Africa and the Middle East was curated by Debbie Cullen of the Printmaking Workshop. Completed and now installed, the painted quilt, Eugenia Maria de Hostos, a Man and his Dream , now hangs in the atrium of De Hostos Community College. Also completed Le Cafe des Artistes, #11 of part 2 of the French Collection and a painted quilt entitled Marlon’s Quilt in memoriam to Marlon Riggs who died of AIDS in 1994. The sale of this quilt to benefit AIDS care and research. Receives seventh honorary doctorate from (RISD) Rhode Island School of Design. On June 10, Birdie and Faith attend a black tie dinner in the Rose Garden of the White House, seated next to Hillary Clinton. Faith delivers gifts of a life size Cassie Doll to Chelsea and a painting Faith had made for Clinton’s inauguration of the Clinton family flying from Arkansas to the White House in Washington, DC. ”Four good years 1993 to 1997 and then four more,” is written across the sky.

1995 On May 19, attends the 75th Anniversary of the Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor at the White House. Is commissioned to create a benefit poster titled, Women’s Work Counts to celebrate the occasion. The original art is exhibited at the White House and later at the Department of Labor. Received the Townsend Harris Medal from the City College of New York Alumni Association. Published four books in this year: We Flew Over the Bridge: The Memoirs of Faith Ringgold, (Little, Brown and Company) my first adult book, and three children’s books: My Dream of Martin Luther King, and Talking to Faith Ringgold, (Crown Publishers) an autobiography for children, with Nancy Roucher and Linda Freeman. An artist’s book: 7 Passages to a Flight was published by Brighton Press in San Diego, California. Visited Damascus, Syria when the Cairo Biennial toured the Middle East. Is now represented by the ACA Gallery in New York and has her first solo show there.

1996 Exhibits in Consensus and Conflict: The Flag in American Art, a traveling group show curated by the Whitney Museum of American Art At Champion opened on July 18, 1996. Published her fifth children’s book: Bonjour Lonnie (Hyperion) and was invited to exhibit Flag for the Moon: Die Nigger (1967) in Face a L’ Histoire at the Pompidou Center. Returned to Paris for the exhibition and stayed at the Hotel le Bretonnerie on St. Crois de Bretonnerie. Moira goes too and does first interview for the catalogue for the upcoming traveling exhibition, curated by Dan Cameron at the New Museum of Contemporary Art, Dancing at the Louvre: The French and American Collections and other Story Quilts. Ringgold received her ninth Honorary Doctorate at the Russell Sage College. Crown Heights Children’s History Quilt installed at P.S. 90 in Crown Heights in Brooklyn. Ringgold begins painting the American Collection for the upcoming exhibition at the New Museum of Contemporary Art. Receives a Doctor of Fine Arts from the Parsons School of Design, and another Doctor of Fine Arts from the Russell Sage College in Boston, Massachusetts.

1997 Receives Honorary Doctorate of Education at Wheelock College, in Boston, a Doctor of Philosophy from Molloy College in New York, and New Jersey Artist of the Year Award from New Jersey Center for the Arts. Spent most of 1997 in California painting the American Collection Series while her studio and garden in Englewood, New Jersey was under construction.

1998 The Invisible Princess was published by Crown Books for Young Readers. Dancing at the Louvre: Faith Ringgold’s French Collection and Other Story Quilts, a traveling show curated by Dan Cameron for the New Museum in New York City, opens at the Akron Museum in Akron, Ohio.

1999 Art studio and garden completed on Jones Road in Englewood, New Jersey. First Anyone Can Fly Foundation Garden Party on October 1, 1999. The Foundation’s mission to expand the art establishment canon to include artists working in the tradition of the African Diaspora (born from 1765 to 1920) and to introduce those artists and art traditions to kids as well as adult audiences. Began a series of paintings (Faith’s Garden Party #1,2 and 3) of the attendees from photographs taken of them in the garden. Coming to Jones Road, Part 1, a series of eight story quilts “inspired” by neighbors’ attempts to prevent construction of studio are begun in new studio. Published three children’s books: If a Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks for Simon and Schuster, Cassie’s Colorful Day and Counting to Tar Beach for Crown Books for Young Readers. Receives an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from the Bank Street College of Education and a Doctor of Fine Arts from Marymount Manhattan College in New York City.

2000 Racial Questions and Answers www.Racialquestions.com, a conceptual study begins an online survey of race and color in America. Coming to Jones Road Part 1 completed, and a solo exhibition opens at ACA Galleries in New York City. Receives the 31st NAACP Image Award for Best Children’s Book If a Bus Could Talk:The Story of Rosa Parks; A New York Chapter Continental Societies Inc. First Annual Women of Distinction Award; and a Doctor of Humane Letters from Marygrove College in Detroit, Michigan, Artist in residency at Pasadena City College.

2001 Publishes Cassie’s Word Quilt, eleventh children’s book with Crown Books for Young Readers. Begins a series of Jazz Paintings in gouache and acrylics on paper.Receives an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from William Patterson University in Wayne, New Jersey and a Doctor of Fine Arts from Chicago Institute of the Arts in Chicago, Illinois; totaling sixteen honorary doctorates received since 1986. The Anyone Can Fly Foundation, Inc. sets up a website to announce its programs at www.Anyonecanflyfoundation.org.

2002 The Anyone Can Fly Foundation receives (5(O)1(c)3 tax exempt status and begins a Foundation Art Collection to benefit the Foundations Granting Programs. The last in a series of three Garden Party paintings of the attendees (1999, 2000, 2001) is completed. Retires from teaching at the University of California in San Diego. Freedom of Speech, a painting executed in Paris, France in 1990 (created for the exhibition Celebrating America’s Great Rights-The Artist’s Perspective at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2000 and made into a poster in 2002. Rather quickly it became a Met Best-Seller.

2003 On The Steps at Uris Library, a commissioned painting for the Columbia University Women’s School of Business, was installed in the School of Business at Columbia University in May. Completed Illustrations for Oh Holy Night, a children’s book of Christmas Carols with a CD by The Boys Choir of Harlem to be published by Harper Collins in 2004. Contracted to do four more books with Harper Collins to be completed by 2006. Begins painting Jazz series of quilts titled Soul Suite #1: Movement in Black and Blue; Soul Suite #2: Mama Can Sing; Soul Suite #3: Papa Can Blow. Street Story Quilt (1985) purchased by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1990 was placed on display in an exhibition called: Modern Story Tellers on the first floor of the Lila Atcheson Wallace Wing (Gallery 6) in the Metropolitan on May 6 through December. A Metropolitan Museum of Art on-line exhibition: Artists View New York also includes Street Story Quilt and provides downloadable access to the text. A poster of Street Story Quilt is included in the exhibition resource kit: Art by African-American Artists: Selections From the 20th Century. One copy is free to New York Public Schools for the asking. Promoted by Tonya Lewis and Spike Lee.

American People, Black Light: Faith Ringgold's Paintings of the 1960's

Will feature the artist's two earliest series, American People (1962-1967) and Black Light (1967-1969),which have not been seen together since they were first exhibited in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with catalog.Neuberger Museum of ArtPurchase College State University of New York735 Anderson Hill Road Purchase, NY 10577-1400

2011

Jan 27, 2011 Interviewed by Kevin Alexander for PBS special on the MTA's 50th anniversary

Jan 31, 2011 Faith lectures in Savannah, GA at SCAD

On Feb 10, 2011 the College Art Association honors Faith with the Distinguished Feminist Award. Event was held at the Met museum.

Feb 2011Faith Ringgold works to complete a new book about Henry Ossawa Tanner for PAFA

Feb 22, 2011 NY 1, Stephanie Simon TV spot at ACA gallery

Feb 25, 20011 Award from John Jay College

Feb 28, 2011

Harlem Hospital Book Club

March 9, 2011

BHC Lit World New York, NY

April 7, 2011

Neuberger, Talk for Tracy Fitzpatrick’s class

Purchase, NY

May 12, 2011

Award from Womanspace

Forrestal, NJ

May 18, 2011

Pennsylvia Acadamy of Fine Art Recption PAFA

June 7, 2010

Women Art an Revolution film screening in NYC

Aug 13, 2011

Upstairs Gallery at L'Elegance Linens and Fine Furnishings

Oak Bluffs, MA

Sept 11, 2011

Peace Quilt exhibition in the education center

Met Museum New York, NY

Sept 25, 2011

The Philadelphia Chapter of the Links

Philadelphia, PA

Oct 15, 2011 P

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts PAFA, reception

Philadelphia, PA

Oct 20,2011

Thelma Golding Award

AskWith Forum

Harvard

Cambridge, MA

Nov 11, 2011

Lecture and quilt workshop

Foundry Art Centre

St. Charles, MO (Nov 10-12)

Nov 17, 2011

Lecture

The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University

Venue: Marran Theater,

Lesley U, 34 Mellen Street,

Cambridge, Boston, MA

Dec 1, 2011

Lecture

Miami Art Museum

Miami, FL

2012Feb 2, 2012

American People, Black Light: Faith Ringgold’s Paintings of the 1960s,

Traveling exhibition organized by Neuberger Museum of Art,

Purchase College, SUNY, Purchase,NY on view at

The Spelman College Museum of Fine ArtFebruary 2 – May 19, 2012

Feb 8, 2012Magical Visions, University Museums,

The University of Delaware,

Newark, DE,

February 8 – June 30, 2012

Feb 10

Thread of Life, Museum of Fine Arts,

Florida State University,

Tallahassee, FL

February 10 – March 25, 2012

March 2Faith Ringgold Traveling Survey,

Foundry Art Centre, St. Charles, MO

March 2 – June 1, 2012

March 22, 2012
Lecture, More Than 60 Years Making Art

Spelman College Museum of Fine Art

Atlanta, GA

March 29, 2012

Lecture and quilt workshop, More Than 60 Years Making Art Randolph Macon College

Ashland, VA

May 11, 2012Lecture, Florida State U of Fine ArtsTallahassee, FloridaJuly 25, 2012Lecture, More Than 60 Years Making ArtCincinnati Art MuseumCincinnati, Ohio

Sept 6Honoring Faith,

Traveling exhibition

organized by The City College of New York,

New York, NY,

September 6, 2012 – May 15, 2013

2013

May 10, 2013

Generations,

Museum of Fine Arts,

Florida State University,

Tallahassee, FL

May 10 – July 12, 2013

May 15, 2013

Honorary Doctorate from the Royal College of Art, London, England

artlyst on 27 June 2013

American contemporary artist Faith Ringgold receiving Honorary Doctorate at the Royal College of Art graduation ceremony on Friday 28 June 2013.

Royal College of Art Honorands are awarded for their significant contribution to culture and industry both internationally and in the UK. Personalities from the spheres of fine art, design, fashion, textiles and the applied arts and humanities are amongst those honoured by the College in recognition of their achievements...American-born Faith Ringgold has had an illustrious career as painter, writer, speaker, mixed media sculptor and performance artist. Professor emeritus at the University of California, San Diego where she taught art from 1987 until 2002, Faith’s work has been exhibited in museums and galleries world-wide and is included in many eminent private and public art collections. Written and illustrated by Faith, her children’s book If a Bus Could Talk; The Story of Ms. Rosa Parks won the NAACP's Image Award in 2000.

June 18 and 19, 2013
American People Black Light exhibition opens at the National Museum of Women in the Arts
Faith sits on a panel with Tracy Fitzpatric and Thom Collins, has interviews with the press and attends several receptions.

Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, Campus Center, Main Level, SUNY College at Old Westbury, Route 107, Old Westbury, New York 11568

For further information about the exhibition, please contact Gallery Director Hyewon Yi at yih@oldwestbury.edu or 646-421-5863. Please visit our gallery FacebookFeb 19 -22, 2014 Artists in residency at Notre Dame University, worked on developing a print with Joe Sugura, gave a lecture and 2 workshops.

Feb 28, 2014
FR Appearance Mickelton, NJ school

March 5, 2014
FR attends the Post Picasso exhibition at the Museu Picasso in Barcelona, Spain. Faith Ringgold's painting, "Die" was included in this exhibition

POST-PICASSO: CONTEMPORARY REACTIONS

MUSEU PICASSO, BARCELONA

March 6 – June 29,2014

Vernissage and press conference: 5th March 2014

Curator: Michael FitzGerald

This is the first exhibition dedicated to tracing the impact of Picasso on international contemporary art. Curated by renowned expert Michael FitzGerald, the show will explore the considerable influence of Picasso's oeuvre on the art of today.
more photos

March 6, 2014
FR Appearance San Jose Quilt Museum

March 7, 2014
FR Appearance at Art in action, Menlo Park, Ca

March 30 - June 8, 2014Stories and Journeys: The Art of Faith Ringgold and Aminah RobinsonMattatuck Museum144 West Main StreetWaterbury, CT 06702(203) 753-0381 http://www.mattatuckmuseum.org

47 - October 6, 2011 The City College of New York presented Faith Ringgold with the first Cultural Arts Award. Bronze sculpture by Otto Neals Quilt exhibition"Honoring Faith"
http://www1.ccny.cuny.edu/advancement/news/Faith-Ringgold-Honored-by-CCNY.cfm

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THE WOMEN'S CANON: FEMINIST ART 1960-1979

Our mission is to identify and research the artists, art historians, critics, curators, collectors and writers of the Women’s Cannon of the
1960s and 1970s and uncover the broad spectrum of contributions and innovations these women have made to Contemporary World Art.Click here Women's Canon Blog